When exploring the idea of this blog, I was thinking about what more could be done that just photographing humans. Although portraits of people are powerful, I believe there are other ways to tell this story. (Plus it’s getting dark so early in PA and I’m losing light to photograph!) So I’m sitting in my bed one evening brainstorming ideas with my roommate for my next post. She says to me “what if you photograph people’s bedside tables? I think that can say a lot about a person.” And from there, the idea grew. What people’s living environments and spaces look like, say a lot about a person. I have always been huge into interior design and decorating. I watched HGTV more than Disney Channel when I was younger. I love sitting at home with my mom over breaks from school and watching back to back hours of House Hunters and other design/makeover shows. College is an interesting time for design because we are unable to paint walls, don’t really have a huge budget to work with and have to get creative with wall adhesives (command hooks for days).
My wall space. The blue scarf is from goodwill and I’ve used it on my walls since freshman year. I have photos of friends from back home and also snuck one of Beyonce and Jay-Z in there. (I have an obsession with them and named my pet fish freshman year after them. The letters on my wall are from my boyfriend who is spending the semester abroad in France. We have become pen pals. After taking shots of my own walls, I went around my house and took snapshots of different spaces.
The girls who live in my house come from all over. Some of us are from the south, my friend Val is from Holland, my next door neighbor Saaya is Japanese. There’s a huge range. This really reflects in people’s room. Whether it be little trinkets from markets or photographs of friends and family members, people remind themselves of their home in different ways. This helps tell the diverse story of Carlislians. It’s crazy to think how diverse this town really is and how we each found our way here.
If you’re interested in scrolling through pictures of home design check out Sweet Home Style. But beware, you may be entranced for a few hours.
